[Triumf-seminars] TRIUMF Theory Seminar today at 11:30

[TRIUMF Seminars]

Date/Time: Wed 2024-03-27 at 11:30

Location:  Theory Room/Remote  

Speaker:   Gonzalo Alonso-Alvarez (U Toronto)

Title:     The role of dark matter in supermassive black hole mergers

Abstract: Increasing evidence for a stochastic gravitational background is being collected at pulsar timing arrays. The most plausible origin of the signal is the cumulative strain from the mergers of supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies across the history of the universe. I will discuss how the impact of dark matter dynamical friction on the black hole binary evolution can address some of the questions that this discovery raises. This includes the solution of the "final parsec problem" by which mergers would otherwise stall before gravitational wave emission can drive the coalesce. I will argue that the observational data favor the existence of dark matter self interactions with a cross-section and velocity dependence consistent with the ones capable of solving the small-scale structure problems of collisionless cold dark matter.

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Remote Connection:
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/62535266430?pwd=THVrUzhMdjAyVkNnM05OUWRZYUppZz09

Meeting ID: 625 3526 6430
Passcode: 307647

Note special time!

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General TRIUMF seminar information available at http://www.triumf.ca/home/upcoming-events/about-seminars-lectures